When my friend and travel guide Yogesh Shenoy told me to finish writing about my trips within the year I travelled in, I laughed at him. Now I realize that he understood me better than I understood myself. Covid-19 turned into Covid-20 and now Covid-bloody-never-ending, has ensured that we cant travel anywhere except locally, and that has sadly pushed my desire to write into a very tiny corner of my head (and a reminder on my phone!) I actually have 4 drafts saved because I cant get back to writing about memories of a different era. Even mask-free photographs of the past seem surprising to me now.

And yet, one year down, here I am, scrolling through pictures of my past trips and having vivid memories of wonderful vacations. Maybe this is what I need to get myself off my current Europe-deprived state, to revisit previous trips and pen them on this blog. My last long vacation was a surprise unplanned trip to Thailand (courtesy Banti mama and Renu masi, my husband’s uncle and aunt). I will carry on that story with our flight to Bangkok after a lovely day out on the beautiful waters of the Phi-Phi islands (Thailand 2019: Phuket and Phi Phi islands).

A short and bumpy flight through heavy rain-filled clouds took us to Bangkok, the city of chaos in Thailand. As my brain played “One night in Bangkok” on loop, I couldnt help but remember the movie “The Hangover II” and hope that we weren’t going to lose anyone.

Driving past this billboard to our hotel, I wasn’t too sure about how much I would love it, but I was pleasantly surprised there. Bangkok is very easy to travel about in, has great food, decent temples to see, decent shopping and a vibrant night life. It’s pretty much like Mumbai, just cleaner. And of course, everything seems better on a holiday. So, all in all, Bangkok was a great end to a great trip.

After a short rest, our huge gang of 18 split ways (less to keep track off!) Banti mama and Anup masa headed off to the pristine white Wat Arun, that Banti mama was so desperate to see.

Bangkok is known for cheap shopping, so we followed our more knowing cousins’ advice and headed to a mall, while our husbands slept and watched TV (ideal shopping trip!) What we didn’t realize though, was that the cheaper malls don’t let you try on clothes, and are more like street shopping under a roof.

Street shopping is fun, especially when interspersed with food, and that’s actually what we had more of. Unable to shop much, we got frustrated and headed to the well-developed waterfront with plenty of food options for all of us. After all, 18 people just cannot have the same food choices.

Spacious and well designed, this large open air mall was at the banks of the Chao Phraya river. We enjoyed standing along the waterfront and watching the barges and ships go by. Unsurprisingly, my friendly out-going brother-in-law found some interesting company.

There was a carnival at the very end, with a ride through a haunted mansion. My extremely arachnophobic teen suddenly decided that she was brave enough to venture in, and did so alone.

Exhausted by the long day, we slept as soon as we got back to the hotel, with a plan to visit a few temples the next day. I was keen on traveling to the Ayutthaya complex, but no one else was interested in heading so far out from the main city, so I had to give it a miss. Instead, we ended up visiting a few temples in the vicinity, that were fairly beautiful. Buddhist temples are quiet and peaceful, or so I had thought, till I went to Bangkok, and realized that tourism could kill the peace just about anywhere.

One can’t help but be awed by this splendor (and possibly need a pair of sunglasses). Apparently, this grand statue was covered by stucco and plaster for many years to protect it from Burmese invaders, and was accidentally discovered when the covered statue fell and a bit of plaster chipped off, revealing the sparkling gold within.

The next destination was Wat Pho, the temple of the reclining Buddha. We had to drive for almost an hour to get there. Most everyone fell asleep, but I kept looking around excitedly at the city. That’s when I saw the Grand Palace, just behind the very temple we were going to. As no one else wanted to see it, I went alone the next day and truly loved it.

However, everyone did want to see the huge reclining Buddha. So, on that hot sunny afternoon, we were lined up at the magnificent complex of Wat Pho, greeted by these warriors guarding the entrance.

This huge complex was too large to see at a go and we had a set of irritable and disinterested teens with us, so we ended up rushing through it. We didn’t even take an audio or book guide to help us through it. Yet, it remains entrenched in my memory as a marvelously constructed complex.

Naturally, our first stop was to see the huge reclining Buddha. This was crowded as could be and we really struggled to get close but we finally got our chance to see the colossal structure up close.

It was stunning enough for us to take a full circle around it and marvel at the workers who must have slaved to put it together. But more sights awaited us and we stepped back out into the heat to see the ornate architecture.

More and more of the same got too much for all of us (even architecture-loving me), and we were pleasantly surprised to find some really quirky statues and some shade.

By the time an hour was up, we were bored as hell and desperate to get out and have some food. There didn’t seem to be Indian food nearby (the preference of seniors of our group), so the hubby found an appropriate restaurant not too far away and we promptly hailed Ubers to that destination. Unfortunately, a very very long cab ride took us to the wrong area and we were left lost and confused on the streets of Bangkok (but fortunately together.) Luckily, some enquiries led us to an Indian part of town, with a gurudwara and shopping complex very reminiscent of Bur Dubai.

We were all very tired by the end of lunch and hurried to our hotel to sleep. In the evening, we went to another favorite Indian haunt to shop for bags, purses and gifts for family, items that we haven’t yet used, thanks to the pandemic. As we were ready to leave, it started pouring cats and dogs. We were to meet the rest of our gang at a restaurant near our hotel, but there was no cab in sight. We finally had the best possible Indian dinner right across the mall and then headed back to our hotel, arms bursting with bags.

Retail therapy has never hurt anyone.

This was our last night in Bangkok. The next evening we were to head back home. But we still had the next morning to go sightseeing and shopping, an entertaining story that needs more time to be told.. Hopefully, that will happen in this year itself!